1. doing pushups and other bodyweight exercises that are similar to the movement of a barbell exercise is probably advisable prior to doing the barbell exercise regularly.
paused pushups helped me learn that the place where I should have the barbell is actually much lower than my nipples, even though every guide says to put it at nipples. also, the place I was doing liftoff was not in line with my eyes, so my bar path was weird.
this isn't something I learned recently, but it's something I've become very confident in recently.
this also makes me think that maybe bench isn't the best lift to start people off on for chest. in fact, I'm somewhat of a proponent now in figuring out how to do "gymless" versions of exercises -- as in, cheaper versions with weights at home, or bands, or bodyweight, so you can understand just what is actually going on when a specific muscle is being worked to failure. being able to feel the muscle under tension helps a -lot-.
2. some exercises/isolations just... don't come intuitively for someone using a gym, but they're really effective. eccentric exercises are these. in studies they give a LOT of hypertrophy compared to concentric exercises. why this is I don't know -- I suspect they're under-worked.
so, first one is the eccentric bicep curl. this is basically a bicep curl in reverse. just imagine yourself curling away instead of toward you, with the hardest part of the lift being the first step away from you, with the lift becoming easier as you get further away from you. (so, the opposite of what happens in a curl.)
you can do this with a resistance band really easily. the bicep gains are INSANE. I've never seen anything like it. I think it's because this movement is VERY understimulated in almost all lifts.
3. calf stuff. I learned this stuff from walking to texas state for grad school.
almost all calf training is JUST the gastrocnemius. this is probably why people who train calves have kinda-crappy calves.
the soleus muscle doesn't get worked at all in any major calf exercise. the best way to work it, I've found, is by just walking up an incline carrying heavy shit, in heavy-ass boots. you can do this on a gym treadmill probably, but it takes like 5 minutes for me to really get a burn. the burn is insane though. it feels like my ankles are hurting.
finally, there's tibialis. this is actually the missing link between all crappy calves and good calves, because it creates definition on the sides. the tibialis I've found is most stimulated by... actually, playing DDR no bar lmao. but otherwise, weird kettlebell exercises at the gym, where you put the kettlebell around your foot, work. just google "tibialis" + "kettlebell" and you'll see a bunch. a tibialis pump feels like the bone in your leg hurts, because it's so close to the bone itself.
4. the frequency with which you benefit from working certain muscles is probably proportional to how much those muscles adapted to work. so, forearms/calves = a lot, triceps = not so much.
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don't have any huge revelations here but I figured I'd share this stuff.
paused pushups helped me learn that the place where I should have the barbell is actually much lower than my nipples, even though every guide says to put it at nipples. also, the place I was doing liftoff was not in line with my eyes, so my bar path was weird.
this isn't something I learned recently, but it's something I've become very confident in recently.
this also makes me think that maybe bench isn't the best lift to start people off on for chest. in fact, I'm somewhat of a proponent now in figuring out how to do "gymless" versions of exercises -- as in, cheaper versions with weights at home, or bands, or bodyweight, so you can understand just what is actually going on when a specific muscle is being worked to failure. being able to feel the muscle under tension helps a -lot-.
2. some exercises/isolations just... don't come intuitively for someone using a gym, but they're really effective. eccentric exercises are these. in studies they give a LOT of hypertrophy compared to concentric exercises. why this is I don't know -- I suspect they're under-worked.
so, first one is the eccentric bicep curl. this is basically a bicep curl in reverse. just imagine yourself curling away instead of toward you, with the hardest part of the lift being the first step away from you, with the lift becoming easier as you get further away from you. (so, the opposite of what happens in a curl.)
you can do this with a resistance band really easily. the bicep gains are INSANE. I've never seen anything like it. I think it's because this movement is VERY understimulated in almost all lifts.
3. calf stuff. I learned this stuff from walking to texas state for grad school.
almost all calf training is JUST the gastrocnemius. this is probably why people who train calves have kinda-crappy calves.
the soleus muscle doesn't get worked at all in any major calf exercise. the best way to work it, I've found, is by just walking up an incline carrying heavy shit, in heavy-ass boots. you can do this on a gym treadmill probably, but it takes like 5 minutes for me to really get a burn. the burn is insane though. it feels like my ankles are hurting.
finally, there's tibialis. this is actually the missing link between all crappy calves and good calves, because it creates definition on the sides. the tibialis I've found is most stimulated by... actually, playing DDR no bar lmao. but otherwise, weird kettlebell exercises at the gym, where you put the kettlebell around your foot, work. just google "tibialis" + "kettlebell" and you'll see a bunch. a tibialis pump feels like the bone in your leg hurts, because it's so close to the bone itself.
4. the frequency with which you benefit from working certain muscles is probably proportional to how much those muscles adapted to work. so, forearms/calves = a lot, triceps = not so much.
---
don't have any huge revelations here but I figured I'd share this stuff.
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